Spirit of Racine Half Ironman Triathlon - Triathlon1/2 Ironman

I started about 3 rows back and slightly left. We ran in and it was basically head up swimming to the first buoy and then it was a mass draft for 200 yards after that. I never really got kicked or swam over but just alot of bodies and chop at that point. I kept trying to get some open water but could not find any for awhile. After about 200 yards it cleared out a bit and I found a very comfortable pace. I was not pushing at all. This was my first rodeo at this distance and did not want to burn to many matches to early. There were several people that kept standing up that I saw as I was sighting and were walking which was odd until my hand started hitting the sand. I just kept plugging along and the yellow turn buoy came up pretty quick. I made the turn for the short leg to shore. I got to the beach and checked my watch and saw 26:30 (what the hell) and checked it again to make sure I was not hallucinating. I was expecting 35:00 so this immediately gave me 9:00 to play with to go sub 5 hours. I was a little disturbed that they would purposely make this swim short - kind of puts a question mark by my time in my opinion which sucks.

Nothing - swim went perfect. My pace was comfortable and set myself up well for the rest of the day.

AG 6/80 - wetsuit got stuck on the ankles and a little wobbly trying to get my shoes on.

It was a average transition for me.

I headed out of transition area feeling very good and started flying down main street. My goal for this ride was to settle into a comfortable pace and set myself up for a good run at my marathon pace (7:23 mi/mile). The first 10 miles out of town were very flat and legs were feeling very good. I could feel the last couple days that my legs were ready to do some work and they showed up today. There were several very rough spots of roadway that had me checking my nutrition bottle to make sure it did not eject - same with my CO2 inflator. The road adjacent to 94 was ridiculous. I feel like I really held back alot on this ride because I knew there was 13.1 miles of running ahead of me and was not sure how my legs would react so I just kept it comfortable although it was hard with people flying by me. There were (3) pelotons that came up by me throught the ride and were ridiculous. There was a couple with the same jersey that were apparently doing a team time trial today. The third group came past me about 10 miles to go and then just sat there at about 20-21 mph - I was wondering what the hell - you just came up on me - pass me and then just sit there and do not move like they were waiting for the next person to start pulling. After a minute I said the hell with this and put the hammer down on the left and got away from that group. I have never seen people blatantly draft like this Ever - although I have never done a race this big - I was surprised and irritated too. The marshals rode right next to me earlier in the ride for awhile as we watched the peloton about 100 yards ahead but they did not do anything - WTF.

I was looking to average around 22 mph for this ride and put down a very solid ride. I looked at my watch as I was coming into transition and was under 3 hours so I knew I was in very very good position to put down a solid time. Nutrition was 2.25 servings of concentrated INFINIT (625 calories) took in water at every aid station into the aero bottle.

Nothing - I felt awesome coming off the bike.

AG 6/80 good transition - socks on - shoes on - visor on - GU flask in the shirt and off I go.

Nothing - contemplated stopping for a pee break but did not want to lose that time on the field so passed on that.

I came out of transition feeling absolutely awesome and ready to put down a good time. I looked at my watch and saw 3:00:00 so I had 2 hours to go sub 5 hours but I knew I could go 1:35 on a good day. The weather was perfect with overcast skies and 68 degrees. The first 5 miles i was clicking off 7:20-7:30 miles which was my target. I concentrated on keeping a high cadence and tall running. The fans coming through for the second loop were awesome and sent me on my way again. The first loop was right around 46-47 minutes. I thought holy crap I am going to be around 4:3x:xx if I can just keep this pace. I felt really strong still. I was taking a shot of my gu flask and water at each aid station. My pace started to fade a touch about mile 9 and I picked it up again. I saw my sister about mile 10 and she was on her first loop as she started 20 minutes later - we gave a high five - she looked good and is a good runner so knew she was having a good day too. I got to the final downhill into transition and let the legs go as I was flying by people. Going past the turnaround point and into the finishers chute felt unreal. The crowd support was awesome and I think I amazed myself today.

Nothing - good run course along the beach. I was 5 sec/mile slower than my goal time but still a solid run time.

Met up with Rachael - grabbed some food - went and waited for my sister to come through. She came through in about 5:20:00 which was awesome. We got our gear out of TA and packed up the car. The hotel would not let us get a late checkout so I had to ride back to Michigan all stinky.

I have hurt much much worse at Olympic distance - this effort was comfortable all day long - got me to thinking - IRONMAN in 2010??


Nothing - goal met!


The Volunteers were the best I have ever seen - there were lots of them and they knew what they were doing - even the kids. Aid station were plentiful. Event was on time and run smoothly minus the short swim course.

Now I need to devise a training plan to beat that time - ahh the next challenge!